Modular office systems have become increasingly popular over the last decade for customizing open office space into compartmental individualized semi-private office areas. These systems are particularly useful in modern unpartitioned office buildings where the construction of permanent office or privacy partitions would be quite expensive, particularly where the tenant does not have a sufficiently long term lease to justify the expenditure for the construction of permanent office subdivisions.
These modular office systems basically consist of a plurality of standard vertical panels that are easily connectable to one another in either a straight line, a simple 90 degree corner, a "T" configuration, or a four-way 90 degree crossing configuration. Present day office systems of this type include panels in a plurality of standard widths, for example, 24 inch width, 30 inch width, and 48 inch width. Each of these panels has a rectangular peripheral frame assembly, in some case a 5/8 inch rectangular tubular frame, over which decorative exterior cover panels are mounted. This frame is adapted to carry one or more electrical receptacles on the lower horizontal tubular frame member, and these receptacles are referred to as baseline receptacles. In 48 inch panels there are frequently provided two of these receptacles or receptacle openings, and in the 24 inch and 30 inch panels, one receptacle adaptation is frequently provided. In addition to the baseline receptacle openings or adaptations, these modular panels are provided with an adaptation for a higher receptacle, commonly referred to as a beltline receptacle.
During the installation of these modular office systems, the installing contractor will subcontract to an electrical contractor the job of installing the beltline and baseline receptacles in the frames after the frames have been set up and prior to the addition of the covering panels to the frames. Presently, conventional receptacle boxes are mounted on the frame by the contractor and the boxes are interconnected by either BX cable or conduit. This requires the electrical contractor to measure the distance between receptacles and to cut the BX or conduit to the needed dimensions. This is a particular problem because as noted above the panels have a variety of standard widths. Another problems is that the standard receptacle boxes and conventional wiring techniques are not acceptable in these modular office systems in locales with very strict fire codes.
It is a primary object of the present invention to ameliorate the problems noted above in electrical wiring systems for receptacles in modular office systems.